Where are you from? Are you camping with your family? Where's your dad? - these are all questions Jack dreads.
Jack and his mum head off on a camping trip to Maine. They borrow the equipment they need and his mum hires a car. Mum is keen to write a list of all the things she wants to do and see in Maine.
"These were supposed to be the best three days of his whole summer. The ones that were going to make up for the boring days he'd spent in their nothing-to-do apartment. Mom, in her exploding firecracker way had borrowed equipment, read online reviews, made lists of all the best places to visit, circled maps and even downloaded music for the car ride."
Jack joins in but when he makes suggestions of things to add to the list his mother gets mad. Jack knows he has to tread carefully. His mum has moods - highs and lows - and things can be dangerous when she is unwell. Mum has warned Jack not to tell anyone about their lives.
"Once, Nina has asked him why he was alone so much, and he had tried to tell her - tell her about his mom's pinwheel times. How sometimes the air felt so still to her, like there wasn't any oxygen or breezes to be found. These times made his mother so prickly, she could hardly sit still."
"That's what worry did to Jack, it made him incredibly tired - tired the way his mom always was after the spinning times. She'd come home and crawl into bed, close the shades, pull up the covers, and that's where Jack would find her for days - sometimes even weeks - after a spinning time."
When Jack wakes up on the first morning of their trip the hire car is gone, his mother is gone and so is her little tent. Jack is alone and confused. The next few days will be terrible for Jack and harrowing for you, the reader, as Jack tries to find his mother, tries to stay away from the authorities and he tries to simply survive.
Everything seems to against Jack. He accidentally swims with his phone, he breaks his little finger and is in excruciating pain and then all of his gear is stolen. Jack does need help but the warnings issued by his mother are powerful and so he keeps running and searching and trying to reach his, ever changing, destination.
"No!' he shouted. No! No! No! How could he have been so stupid? He had forgotten. Forgotten his phone was in his pocket. Forgotten and gone swimming! The phone was totally soaked. ... Totally soaked and totally dead."
"All Jack had left was a water bottle, the clothes on his back, and one small, plastic elephant."
The one thing that keeps Jack going is his desire to see a live elephant. When he was a child he had a special experience:
"But the elephant had tapped him again and kept on tapping him until he lifted his head and looked over at her. Slowly, slowly, she'd reached out her trunk again and touched his cheek. Jack remembered giggling, remembered feeling as if the elephant tent were the safest place in the world."
If you, or your reading companion, can cope with the severe mental health issues raised in this book, then I would recommend this gripping story of survival for readers aged 11+. If you need more plot details here is a review by Book Aunt.
I previously read two books by Jennifer Richard Jacobson - Paper Things and The Dollar kids.
Other books which explore mental illness in a parent:
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